Exposed Summit

Wind Mountain is a nice hike in the Gorge with good views (in clear weather). It's about 2.5 miles round-trip and 1000 feet of gain. There's no pass required at the trailhead and it's often less busy than nearby Dog Mountain.

Head east on Highway 14 from Stevenson, Washington about 6.2 miles to Home Valley. Then turn onto Wind Mountain Road for 1.0 miles to turn right onto Girl Scout Road and go about 0.6 miles. This leads to a large dirt parking area at the end of the paving near 45.7145°, -121.7533°. This is usually the best place to park.

W7O/NC-071, listed as summit number 3058, is a part of what is more commonly referred to as Hembre Ridge.  While formally Hembre Ridge is the ridgeline that runs northeast to southwest, summit 3058 is the highest point in this massif.  I’ll leave it to others to quibble about whether this summit should be renamed.  

We had grand plans for the weekend and then saw them all melt away after a couple of received phone calls.  By Sunday afternoon, the sobering reality of a totally adventureless weekend was weighing heavily on us.  As my hope faded, Mrs.

I read up on K7ATN's activation from 2015 and spent a fair amount of time looking at the maps.  It seemed like there was an easier way to the summit than the highly rutted road that he had taken.  Sure enough, there are good roads all the way to the bottom of the approach.

Access to Saturday Rock summit is via NF-42 which begins at Sunset Campground at the end of NE Sunset Falls Road.  The road is well graded, though peppered with its fair share of chuck holes. Follow NF-42 for  approximately 9.4 miles to the intersection with NF-53.  Continue on NF-53 for another 2.4 miles to the intersection of NF-53 and NF-38. Plenty of room to park at the intersection off the main roads.

Peak 4816 is a near drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. The summit area has an small but interesting rock pinnacle. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52 except a sked with a nearby S2S.

Peavine Mountain is a drive-up summit a bit east of Mount Hood, accessed mostly on paved Forest Service roads. You should consider this summit in the Mount Hood 2m FM "dead zone" as we were not able to raise anyone on 146.52, even after begging on the Mt. Hood repeater.

Travel on Highway 6, and turn north onto Cedar Butte Road between milepost 17 and 18. Drive over the bridge and continue straight at the Muesial Creek Road junction (0.1 mile). There are signs at each junction that direct you to the Cedar Butte Trailhead, however, mark your mileage here and watch for posted signs. The trailhead is about 5.5 miles from this point, although the sign says 5.7. At 2.0 miles turn right at the “Y” intersection. At 4.8 miles, the Cedar Butte Road veers left.

Here's a drive-up summit a few miles off Highway 26 when you are on your way to the coast. Not from from the well-trod Saddle Mountain, W7O/NC-004, it's one more point for the ambitious activator. The roads are easily traveled in a passenger car.

This summit had never been activated and I now know why!  The USGS maps would have you believe there is a road to the summit.  There actually was a road when the forestry lookout was standing, but the last 1-1/2 miles of road is now overgrown and would take some guts and a great off-road 4-wheeler to traverse it.  These same last miles are steep and unrelenting, though completely forested.  When the so-called road ends. there are a few hundred feet of vertical trail required to reach the summt.